Equipment:
Bolo – used to give a final blow after incapacitating the aswang.
Stingray Tail – used to incapacitate the aswang. Causes great pain to them.
Kalamansi – A ward to ensure that the aswang cannot pick you up. It weighs them down.
Ashes – Used to sprinkle on the aswang’s body if they self-segment. Aswang cannot reattach if ashes are scattered on their other half.
Gabon/Sambong/Bukadkad/Subsob (Blumea Balsamefera) – This plant is used to ward off aswang. Pick it fresh and keep it in your pocket.
Garlic – Aswang cannot stand the smell of garlic. Keep some with you at all times.
Salt – Used in the same way as ashes. Can also be used to ward certain places away from aswang.
Wards – Blessed objects, holy water anting-anting are all useful to keep away the monsters. Make sure to see a priest beforehand.
Rituals:
Aswang can be captured by arranging 3 big stones in a circle, like a stove, once the ‘kak kak’ call of the creature comes, recite the Apostle’s Creed. Once you reach the part of the creed about the nailing of Christ to the cross, pick up one of the stones and drive a nail into the ground. The creature will come down and perch on the three stones, where it can be killed.
There is a ritual in which the curse of being an aswang can be lifted, it involves drinking lemon and water, being hung upside down so that they will vomit a bird-like creature which has to be cut into pieces.
Reminders:
Use the wards to stop their spells. Incapacitate them with the pain from the stingray tail then cut their heads off with a final blow from the bolo.
Curses by aswag can be confirmed by performing the ‘egg ritual’ in which if eye marks and blood are seen in the egg that means the person was ‘inaswang’ (bewitched).
Illusions on food can be dispelled by squeezing calamansi over them. Dishes such as sinigang will turn into bowls filled with human fingers and blood.
Curses by aswang can go both ways so if the victim is whipped or injured in any physical way, the aswang will be the one that feels it.
This list is by no means extensive on how to hunt the creature. There are many other rituals and wards used to fight off these monsters.
May the Lord guide your path.
Godspeed.
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Written by Karl Gaverza
Copyright © Karl Gaverza
Inspired by various Aswang legends
Aswang Illustration by Patricia Ramos
FB: The Art of Patricia Ramos
